The Economic and Social Council today forwarded to the General Assembly a resolution concerning the structure of the World Food Programme’s Executive Board, essentially maintaining the current distribution of seats and rotation pattern.

The Commission for Social Development wrapped up its forty-ninth session today by approving without a vote five draft resolutions calling for wide-ranging steps, from support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the upcoming review of the action plan on ageing to improving the lot of youth, persons with disabilities and families.

The Security Council today failed to adopt a text that would have described as “illegal” Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 while reiterating demands that all settlement activity cease immediately.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s opening remarks to the Commission on the Status of Women, today, 22 February, in New York:

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

With Timor-Leste’s broad transition strategy showing solid progress on security- and judicial-sector reforms, the top United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today that upcoming elections and the transformation of the world body’s mission there would be important political tests for the resiliency of the Timorese Government and the durability of the institutions built since the military crisis of 2006.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti (Brazil):

While the last year had seen significant efforts to improve women’s status around the world — including the landmark creation of the United Nations new gender entity, UN Women — the global report card was decidedly mixed, but investment in girls’ education could propel both economic growth and women’s equality, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said today, as she opened the fifty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

The United Nations would aim in the coming year to build on 2010 efforts to bolster the ability of the “blue helmets” to protect civilians, defuse conflict and foster sustainable peace in strife-torn areas through a range of policy-development, operational capacity, field support, planning and oversight-improvement measures, the head of the world body’s peacekeeping operations told the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations as it opened its 2011 substantive session today.

The Peacebuilding Commission decided today that it would place Guinea on its agenda, acting for the first time without a referral from the Security Council but responding instead to a request from the West African country itself.